Could This Happen To You?

Sadly, a 7-month old baby was left to die in a hot car yesterday. The mom is a pediatrician and the dad a medical researcher. This was not the result of neglect, but the result of multi-tasking and lack of communication. My immediate reaction to the story was "How the hell can you forget that your child is in the car?" Well the answer is clear--if you do not know that the child is in the car because you didn't put the child in the car. This tragedy could have easily been avoided. But we have all done something that is seemingly as benign--forgetting to tell the other parent that we fed/didn't feed the kids, etc.

This tragic story is a perfect example of just how busy we have become. Is making it to a meeting on time really worth your child's life. I know the mom would say "NO" but at that moment she made the choice she didn't know what the consequence would be. I am not about placing blame here. I will not do that now--as these parents have paid the ultimate price.

I am writing about his now, as I hope to get us to think about what is really important to us as a society. I see it all the time, not that I am never really in a hurry to get anywhere anymore. We take risks constantly to keep up with our over scheduled lives--we speed, run red lights, weave in and out of traffic, eat fast food because we don't have time to cook meals, etc. When are we going to slow down and start to realize that there are more important things that are being overlooked. We are over scheduled as adults and in turn we over schedule our kids and because of that we forget to sign a field trip form, to help with a science project, to drop our kids off at daycare.

This tragedy becomes a little less of one, if we learn from it. Let's look at what this family's loss can teach us.